Garment construction



Oct. 27, 1942. P. H. BAILEY GARMENT CONSTRUCTION Filed March 29, 1940 IN V EN TOR.

Zia 7e A TTORNEYS.

Patented Oct. 27, 1942 GARMENT CONSTRUCTION Perkins H. Bailey, New York, N. Y., assignor to Talon, Inc, a corporation of Pennsylvania Application March 29, 1940, Serial No. 326,705

1 Claim.

This invention relates to garments and, in particular, to the provision of improved front constructions in such garments, for instance, as are known as housecoats and housedresses.

It is the primary object of this invention to provide such constructions embodying the features of low cost, attractive appearance, utmost ease and facility of ingress and egress, and convenience in adjusting the garments to forms or figures of widely varying sizes and proportions.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such constructions embodying a slide-fastened closure, which is of relatively short length with respect to the length of the complete garment front opening provided by the garment front construction.

It is a further object of this invention .to provide such constructions wherein an opening, in the front Waist portion of the garment, is provided with a separating end slide fastener leading into an opening, adjacent and below the garment waistline, which last-named opening provides for extension of the slide-fastened closure throughout the length of the garment.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such constructions wherein the opening, which provides an extension of the slide-fastened closure, is closed by a transverse overlapping of the skirt portion of the garment.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such constructions wherein one flap provided by overlapping of the garment skirt portion is disposed in lapped relationship with respect to the lower, separating end of the fastener in the slide-fastened closure of the garment waist portion, and in like relationship with respect to the adjacent lower end portions of the garment waist portion.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such constructions wherein the outer flap provided by overlapping of the garment skirt portion is provided with tie string means adapted for retaining the flap in closed position while, at the same time, providing means for adjusting the waistline portion of the garment to waistlines of widely varying sizes.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such a construction wherein the lower end tion taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing which formsa part thereof, and will be pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a front view of an illustrative garment. embodying a garment front construction, ac cording to this invention, with the garment front closed;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view of the garment front construction of Fig. 1, with the garment front closure partly open;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary front View of an illustrative modified form of garment construction, the garment front closure being closed, and a part of the garment skirt portion being omitted in the interest of clearness of disclosure;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2 of the modified garment construction illustrated in Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a rear view of the illustrative garment construction of Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, the lower part of the garment skirt portion bein omitted, as in Figs. 2, 3 and 4.

This invention extends the use of slide fasteners to low cost garments such as housecoats and housedresses, of the Wrap around type, wherein the use of other fastening means has formerly been dictated by the extremely rigid price restrictions imposed by the highly competitive nature of the low cost garment market.

Formerly, in the manufacture of garments such as housecoats and housedresses, the provision therein of slide-fastened closures of such length as to provide the necessary and desirable large opening necessary for convenience of ingress and egress, has been accomplished only with the accompanying disadvantages of substantial, if not prohibitive, increase in garment cost.. This has been particularlytrue in the highly competitive low cost garment field, where the increase of the price of a garment by a few cents has, quite often, been disastrous to the manufacturer of the garment in this highly competitive field.

Slide fasteners are sold by length and, for that reason, the use of a fastener of such length as to extend throughout the length of a closure of from 36" to 40", hitherto thought necessary for convenient ingress and egress, made the price of the slide fastener a substantial, if not exorbitant, factor in the sale price of the garment.

According to this invention, a relatively short slide-fastened closure incorporating a slide fastener of short length and, therefore, of low cost, is usedin the waist portion of the garment. An

' extension of the slide-fastened closure opening is provided in the skirt portion of the garment and flap or apron means is provided for closing the extension of the slide-fastened closure opening. This structure achieves, by the use of a cheap slide fastener of short length, the advantages achievable heretofore only by the use of slide fasteners of far greater length and commensurately greater cost.

Considered in a different way, the front of the garment is provided with a closure opening of such length as to achieve the necessary and desirable convenience of ingress and egress. A part only of this closure opening is slide-fastened by the use of a short cheap separating end slide fastener. which is not slide-fastened, is closed by a flap or apron in the skirt portion of the garment and provided with means for retaining it in overlying relationship with respect to that portion of the closure opening is not slide-fastened. The retaining means preferably functions also as garment waist adjusting means.

By the above, generally described structure, the above enumerated objects and advantages are achieved, as will be hereinafter pointed out in detail.

In the following description, for the sake of convenience, the rear portion of the garment extending downwardly from the upper end or neck thereof to the bottom of the skirt and from side to side, will be treated. as a unit and designated the back panel. This back panel may, of course, be formed of a single piece of material or of a plurality of pieces of material secured together pieces of material secured to ether in any known manner. The front waist panel is provided with a slide fastened closure extending from its upper end to its lower end and located between the side edges thereof.

The other part of the front wall of the garment, extending upwardly from the bottom of the garment to the waistline, at least, and from side to side of the garment, will be designated the front skirt panel. This front skirt panel forms the front wall of the skirt portion of the garment.

Conventional details of dressmaking, such as stitching, seams, facings, and the like, which are not in themselves a part of this invention, will be omitted from the following description and are omitted from the drawing of this application in interest of clearness of disclosure.

Referring to the drawing in detail and with reference to Figures 1 to 5, the back panel is generally designated If), the front waist panel is generally designated II, and the front skirt panel is generally designated I2.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, the front waist panel comprises a pair of panel portions M and I5, each having its out-er edge secured in suitable manner to an adjacent edge of the back panel It. The lower end portions of the panel portions I4 and I5 are free to form flaps Ito and I5a which serve a purpose hereinafter described in detail.

That portion of the closure opening The front skirt panel I2 is in the form of a flap extending from the waistline to the bottom of the garment and having one edge secured throughout its length to an adjacent edge of the back panel It. At its upper end, the upper edge of the front skirt panel is secured to the front waist panel II from that edge which is secured to the back panel III substantially to the middle of the front of the garment.

The remainder of the front skirt panel I2 is free and forms a flap I6 which extends to, and preferably beyond, the other side of the garment. Preferably, the back panel I0 is extended, in the skirt portion, beyond this last-mentioned side of the garment forwardly under the flap I6, substantially to the central portion of the garment to form an under-flap Iila which is overlapped by the flap I5. From the above, it will clearly appear that the underflap Ifla may be integral with the back panel III or attached thereto in suitable manner.

In order to secure the flap I 6 in closed position, where it overlaps the under-flap Ita, for closing the closure provided between the underflap Illa and the front skirt panel I2, a pair of ties or tie members 20 is provided. One of these tie members is secured to the upper end of the free edge of the flap IE and the other is secured at the upper end of the inner, secured edge of the front skirt panel I2. These ties 28 are extended about the waist portion of the back panel I!) and knotted together, as shown in 'Fig. 5, to secure the flap I6 of the front skirt panel I2 in closed position and also to provide adjustment for the waist of the garment.

As will readily be seen in Fig. l, the flap portions Ida and I511 extend downwardly overlapping relationship over the upper end of the front skirt panel I2 in such manner as to make the details of the front disclosure imperceptible to an observer.

The front waist panel II is provided with a slide-fastened closure which comprises a pair of stringers of a slide fastener I'I having a. separating end fitting I8 and a slider I9, one stringer being secured to the inner edge of the front panel portion I I and the other stringer being secured to the corresponding edge of the front waist panel portion I5.

As may be ,readily seen from Figs. 1 and 2, the extension of the slide fastener I I to the lower end of the front waist panel II, which locates the separating end fitting I8 between the flap portions I la and I5a, provides ultimate freedom of access to the separating end fitting for facilitating opening and closing of the slide-fastened closure in the front waist panel II by connecting and disconnecting the stringers of the slide fastener II. The wrap-around skirt portion of the garment has a closure therein which provides an extension of the slide-fastened closure from the waist portion of the garment to the lower end thereof. This closure in the garment skirt portion is also at all times effectively closed by the substantial overlapping relationship between the flap It and the underflap IDa.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, the side edges of the back panel ID are disposed but slightly beyond the sides of the garment, as shown in Fig. 4. The front waist panel portions I4 and I 5 terminate substantially at the waistline of the garment, and the flap portions Ida and I5a are omitted therefrom.

The front skirt panel I2 has a waist band IZa incorporated in its upper edge from the opposite ends of which the ties 20 extend, as shown in Fig. 4. These ties are extended over the back panel ID at the waistline of the garment and knotted, as shown in Fig. 5.

One side edge of the front skirt panel I2 is secured to the back panel 10 from the upper end to the lower end of the front skirt panel 12 with the edges of the front skirt panel and the adjacent side of the back panel in slightly overlapped relationship.

The waist band l2a is secured to the front waist panel II from the same side of the back panel H) substantially to the slide-fastened closure at the central portion of the front waist panel I l.

The width of the front skirt panel I! is substantially greater than the distance between the edges of the back panel l0 whereby the front skirt panel l2, at its free edge, extends around over the back panel ID of the garment to provide substantial overlapping of the flap l6 over the adjacent side of the back panel ID. This flap I6 is formed by the free portion of the front skirt panel l2 beyond that portion thereof which is secured to the front waist panel by attachment of the waist band l2a thereto, as described above.

The above-described embodiments are illus trative of the application of the principles described in my copending application Serial No. 325,992, filed Mar. 26, 1940, to garments of the wrap-around type as distinguished from the types of garments described in that application.

It is, of course, to be understood that the abovedescribed structure is merely illustrative and in nowise limiting and that I desire to comprehend within my invention all modifications included within the scope of the appended claim.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

In a garment including a back panel coextensive with the length and width of said garment, a front waist panel secured at its upper and side edges to said back panel, a front skirt panel secured at one side edge to the adjacent side edge of said back panel and having a substantial portion of its upper end free of attachment to said front waist panel, said front waist panel having a front opening extending throughout its length, a separating end slide fastener secured to said front Waist panel at the opposite sides of said opening and terminating substantially at the waist portion of the garment, the freedom of the free portion of said front skirt panel providing a flap portion overlying the portion of said front opening below said slide fastener, and the free upper end of said front skirt panel and the lower end portion of said front waist panel being in lapped relationship, and the point of attachment of said front skirt panel to said front waist panel being spaced upwardly of the lower edge of said front waist panel, at its underside, to provide a flap overlapping the front end of said front skirt panel and providing free manual access to the separating end of said slide fastener.

PERKINS H. BAILEY. 

